


The Language of Love

by mybeautifulidiot



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Bitterness, Brotp, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mild Language, My First Work in This Fandom, and then theyre not, fight, steve and tony are cute, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 04:32:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mybeautifulidiot/pseuds/mybeautifulidiot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's curiosity gets the best of him and feelings that Steve has been trying to keep bottled up come out.<br/>Later, Bruce gives Tony some advice, and Tony finds a surprise from Steve. Can he fix what he has broken?</p><p> </p><p>A 2-parter Valentine's Day special. I'll post the 2nd (and final) chapter tomorrow (Valentine's Day)</p><p>This is my first work for the Marvel fandom, 2nd work in over a year.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Curiosity Killed the Tony

“Tony?” said Steve, walking into the work shop.

“Hmm…” replied the older man, not looking up from the tiny set of mechanics he was trying to calibrate.

“How many languages does Jarvis know?”

“Uh, all of them.” You could literally feel the sass dripping from Tony’s words.

“Okay. Great. Thanks!” And Steve scampered out of the basement, the glass door sliding shut behind him.

“Weirdo,” Tony said to no one, a hopeless smile creeping across his face.

 

The next day, Tony and Steve were laid, sprawled out, on the couch together. Steve’s arm was thrown over Tony, who was lying on top of Steve, his head buried in the blonde’s t-shirt. Steve stroked Tony’s hair lazily.

“Steve?” asked Tony, his voice muffled by his boyfriend’s chest, “Why’d you ask about those languages yesterday?”

Steve laughed, “No reason.”

“There must be a reason!” Tony’s curiosity was getting the better of him.

“Really, its no big deal,” said Steve, his hand moving from Tony’s hair to his shoulder reassuringly. 

“Please, please, tell me?” Tony lifted his head to look at his boyfriend’s face.  
  
“I’m sorry, Tony. But I’m not going to tell you. It’s none of your business.”

“Of course, it’s my business! I’m your boyfriend! We are LIVING together! We are supposed to share things.”

“Well, this is one thing I’m not telling you! It’s not like you exactly told me everything!” The bitterness that Steve help deep down, aggravated by the smallest touch, began to rise up his chest. 

Tony sat up. “Steve, I can’t tell you everything about my past. It would just confuse you, you wouldn’t even understand most of it…” He tried to calm his partner down but seemed to only make him angrier. 

Steve’s nostrils flared and the normally calm man swung his legs out from under Tony, making the dark-haired man jump. “I told you everything! EVERYTHING! Things I don’t even understand! I told you how it felt to be frozen in a block of ice for seventy years and you can’t tell me about what you were doing 15 years ago?! I’m not as backwards and…and….innocent as you think!” Tears welled in the blonde’s eyes, pain written all over his face. He rose off the couch and headed towards the stairs.

“Steve! Stop!” Tony got up from the couch after his partner, grabbing his strong arm and making him turn around. “I did…I did some messed up shit, okay?” Tony tried to keep his voice calm, “And the only reason I’m not telling you is because I don’t want to hurt you. I love you, Steve. I’m just trying to protect you.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed! But I can protect myself.” Steve jerked his arm from Tony’s hand and stormed out of the room, his feet shaking the stairs as he left. 

Tony sat back on the couch and asked Jarvis for a glass of wine. Steve would calm down and come back for dinner, wouldn’t he? It was just a silly fight after all…


	2. Roses Are Red, White and Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After getting some advice from Bruce, and a gift from Steve, Tony tries to reconcile things with his boyfriend.
> 
> the 2nd part of my 2-parter Valentine's special

Valentine’s Day. A day literally overflowing with chocolate, and gushy-ness, and love, and Tony stark was waking up to it alone. 

The time-worn man rolled over and threw his arm across the bed, across where his partner’s chest should have been. Yesterday, they had had the biggest fight of their relationship. Over what? A simple question? Tony pulled his arm back close to him and flipped the covers off of his body. He tilted his head to the ceiling and sighed. 

Steve hadn’t come to dinner. He hadn’t come to bed. Hell, Tony didn’t even know if Steve was in the tower. Tony shook his head to erase the thought from his mind. He couldn’t let himself think like that. Steve was probably sleeping on the couch. Tony would take him out to a nice Valentine’s dinner, they’d drink some wine, they’d both apologize and everything would get back to normal. 

But Tony knew he wasn’t on the couch. He had been too angry the night before for such a simple fix. The dark-haired man got up from the bed, and walked to his dresser. Pulling out a dress shirt, Tony began to get dressed. As he turned around to look in the mirror, Tony knocked his elbow against the dresser and, something fell from behind a picture frame. 

“Huh?” he asked aloud, confused. He picked up the rectangular, pink object and read the front:

Je t'aime.  
Te quiero.  
Аз те обичам.  
Eu te amo.  
Rakastan sinua.  
मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ.  
Ti amo.  
Jag älskar dig.  
Ik hou van je.

“Uh, Jarvis, what does this say?”

“I believe it says ‘I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.’ In French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Finnish, Hindi, Italian, Swedish and Dutch,” answered the distinctly British computer. 

Tony furrowed his brow, “Can you give me a little more explanation, Jarvis?”

“Well, sir, Mr. Rogers asked me to translate ‘I love you’ into nine different languages yesterday afternoon. It seems this is the result.”

“Wha—Steve? But why?” 

“Perhaps it was your Valentine’s Day gift?”

Tony wanted to cry. He had been an insensitive jerk, he hadn’t just left Steve’s question alone. Of course Steve couldn’t tell him why he’d asked, it was all a surprise. What could have been a really, really nice surprise. But he’d ruined Valentine’s Day just because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. 

The older man ran a rough hand down his face and shook his head. He placed the card back on the dresser and padded downstairs to the Stark Tower kitchen. 

Bruce was sitting at the table, New York Times in one hand, bagel in the other.

“Morning!” he said, his eyebrows raised, “Y’know I thought you and Steve would be sleeping in late this morning! Well, maybe not sleeping. But I thought you’d still be in bed.”

“Actually, uh, Steve and I had a fight.” Tony walked over to the cabinets and grabbed a mug, filling it with coffee. “You didn’t see him last night?” 

Bruce shook his head.

“Figures.” Tony sat down across from Bruce and grabbed a piece of the newspaper and tried to read, but it seemed that the horrible, distracting thoughts in his head just wouldn’t just shut up. He put the newspaper down and started rambling, “It’s all my fault. I didn’t tell him anything, I ask too many questions. And now he’s gone. Just gone. And it’s Valentine’s day. I’m alone again,” Tony kicked himself mentally, “Why can’t I just keep my thoughts to myself? It was all for a romantic gesture, its not like asked how to build an fucking bomb! I know Steve is sensitive about this stuff, and it wasn’t even like it was a big deal and-“

Bruce held up his hand and stopped him, “Tony, it’s okay. Slow down. I’m sure whatever happened is probably your fault, but you don’t have to beat yourself up about it. Couples fight, they just do. Steve loves you, he’ll be back.”

“But, it’s Valentine’s Day.” 

“So why don’t you go find him yourself? Apologize?”

“He’d probably just get madder…”

“Tony, have you even met your boyfriend?”

“I—I guess you’re right.” Tony pushed his chair back, “Thanks, Bruce. You’re amazing, you know that?” Bruce just smiled and nodded, his attention turned back to the Health section.

Just an hour later, Tony had tracked Steve down. 

Using his knowledge of Steve (and a little extra help from Jarvis’ vast data systems), Tony had found his blonde in a hotel room not far from Stark Tower. 

The dark-haired man bounded down the stairs, one hand holding his suit jacket, the other holding the card he’d found earlier that morning and a bouquet of red, white and blue flowers because Steve loved that sort of sappy crap.

On the way towards the front door, Tony passed Pepper. 

“And where exactly do you think you’re going? You have a meeting in 2 hours!”

“Out,” replied Tony, but he was already out the door and hailing a taxi cab. He realized it might have been easier to jump in the Iron Man suit and fly over, but he figured Steve might appreciate the old-fashioned gesture. Hopefully he’d appreciate anything Tony ever did ever again. But Tony honestly didn’t know how the blonde was going to react. 

Tony pulled up to the hotel, tossed some cash at the cab driver, and ran inside.

“I’m looking for Steve Rogers?” he asked the receptionist. 

She typed a few keystrokes into her computer and replied, “218. Would you like to me to call and tell him you’ll be coming up, sir?”

“No thanks,” Tony answered and headed towards the stairs, still holding the card and flowers.

He found room 218 quickly and knocked on the pale wood door. 

Moments later, a tall, broad blonde man wearing only a tower opened the door.  
“Hello? How can I help y—Tony?!” A look of shock crossed the man’s face, “Why are you here?”

“Because it’s Valentine’s Day, Steve,” said Tony, “I found this card, and I realized why you asked me that question, and I know I was, no, am a dick, and I’m sorry we fought, and I’m sorry I haven’t told you about all the shit I used to do—“

“Stop, Tony. I don’t want to talk to you right now. I’m trying to think about stuff, okay?” Steve moved to close the door but Tony stopped it with his hand. 

“Can I say one more thing?”

“What?” sighed Steve, crossing his arms. 

“Ich liebe dich.” 

“What was that supposed to be?” Steve’s brow knitting together.

“I love you. In German.”

A smile couldn’t help but spread across Steve’s beautiful face. “You’re a bastard,” he laughed, and pulled Tony in for a kiss. 

“I know,” said Tony when the broke apart, which caused Steve to laugh again.

“I love you too, y’know” said the blonde.

“I know,” replied Tony.

“You just know everything, don’t you?” 

“I do,” the darker man said, “Well, I obviously don’t know how to be a good boyfriend…” Tony trailed off, looking at Steve with brown, puppy-dog eyes.

“Oh, shut it,” whispered the blonde as he grasped Tony by the shoulders and pulled him into the hotel room, sweeping him into a kiss and shutting the door behind them.

Tony tried to give Steve the flowers, but Steve just laughed and tossed them on the floor where their clothes would soon be.

 

 

Epilogue:  
Tony didn’t make it to that meeting. Pepper covered for him once Bruce told her where Tony had run off to.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I hope you enjoyed my very special, Stony 2-part story! It's the first time I've written for the Marvel fandom, so hi everyone!


End file.
